Take This Job & Love It: Lobstering

In this “Take This Job & Love It” Chelsey Anderson found out if she would sink or swim.A couple weeks ago she went lobstering Downeast on the Laura Lee 2 with a 23 year veteran, and a first year sternman from Texas.————-Marcus Jones, Captain, Laura Lee 2- “We’re going to haul in West Bay today. All my traps I have marked on my plotter. 610 are in the water.”First I’d help with bait.Chelsey- “Oh gross.”Monte Regal, Sternman, Laura Lee 2- “Snapper head in each bag and then topped with herring.”Chelsey- “Is that enough in there? Little more. So when people tell you their job stinks you say?”Monte- “Oh yeah!”It was time for me to try and bring in the haul.Chelsey- “I’m going to watch you this time.”Marcus- “Lift up, put it through the block, into the sheaves. This is the hydraulic control to the front of the boat. Pulls it in. And that’s what you’ll see a lot of in the bay.”Chelsey- “Nothing in this one.”Marcus- “It costs about $1.70 to haul a trap. With bait, fuel, and my man. So if you’re not catching many lobsters that’s about $1.70 each time going whoosh!”Chelsey- “Okay. There’s one.”Marcus- “When you reach and grab them, grab them by the body. Don’t grab them by the claws unless you already have control. You don’t want to shake hands with lobsters.”Chelsey- “You know it’s a keeper?Marcus- “Pretty much. It’s a male. These appendages are going to hard on a male, and soft on a lady. Throw it in the bin. Monte’s going to measure it.””Just grab it from behind. Pull it in. Grab the rope. There you go! You got it!”Chelsey- “I got it! Put it over this?”Marcus- “Yep. Over the block. Into the sheaves. That’s it. Hold the buoy. Get your other hand and turn that on, a little bit forward.”Chelsey- “Such anticipation. Here it comes.”Marcus- “Stop it. There you go. Perfect.”Chelsey- “Uh-oh! Except I went in reverse.”Marcus- “That’s okay.”Chelsey- “Sorry.” Marcus- “That’s okay. You have it. Now turn it around so the wood runners are towards you. Now grab here, with one hand. The other hand you grab the rope down here. Okay, pull it out of there and pull it in.”Chelsey- “That is difficult. So nothing in this one. So we get it set up again.”Marcus- “Take the old bait bag out. Take the new bait bag and string it through the bungee.”Chelsey- “Oh! String it through the bungee.”Marcus- “Excellent. Close the door.”Chelsey- “That’s it. That took about five times longer than you guys do.”Marcus- “That’s okay. Go ahead. It’s your first trap! Ever!”Chelsey- “Yes! Ever!”Marcus- “I usually give a sternman a week.”Chelsey- (Grunt) “I missed it. I’m going to go from the topside this time.” (Grunt) “Like that. I got it! Ah! I’m going to lose it! Uh-oh!” (Growl) Marcus- “I’ll pull forward.”Chelsey- “This is not my day.”Marcus- “Thirty seconds a trap.”Chelsey- “So I’m about five minutes behind right now.”Marcus- (Laughter) “With proper speed we try to haul 50 traps an hour, sometimes more.”Chelsey- “Whoa. Okay. I’m slowing you down. I got it! Ah! That was close!”Marcus- “Almost lost it. So you got two males in there.”Chelsey- “So those are good as long as they are long enough.”Marcus- “She’s all set. We can’t take her. She’s going to be undersized, so we don’t have to V-notch this one.”Marcus- “We’ll have you doing this real fast pretty soon. Hey! Two more! Nice! Thirty seconds! Thirty seconds!”Chelsey- “I’m trying!”Marcus let me take some pots from start, driving the boat, to finish, taking out the lobster.Chelsey- “This is a lot for a person to do. You’re a busy guy.”Marcus- “You should be able to gaff it. You did it!”Chelsey- “I got it!”Marcus- “Just like a pro!”Chelsey- “It’s a good one.”Marcus- “Four more lobsters.”From there we went to the outside of the bay to haul doubles and triples before I found out my fate.Marcus- “I think it went great! I usually don’t let anybody haul triples or pairs. You hauled singles perfectly. You hauled pairs great. And the triples. Eh. A little help, but you did very good.”Chelsey- “But I was slow.”Marcus- “That’s okay. Usually it’s three, four seconds. Thirty seconds for a trap, and it was about three minutes! But that’s okay. With that comes practice. I think after, maybe, two weeks you’d be right in the groove of things. You’ll do great!”Chelsey- “Thanks! Thanks a lot!”Marcus- “You’re very welcome.”Chelsey- “And thanks for having us on the boat.”Marcus- “You’re very welcome. Anytime.”——————Marcus’ Steamed Lobster Recipe:Marcus says the best way to cook lobster is to remove their bands, and steam them in about a half inch of water and a bottle of Corona beer. Then of course dunk the meat in butter.